It is the mandate of XR UK’s Strategy Stewardship Team (SST), not to design or to conceive the content of strategy, but to facilitate the production of a movement-wide strategy by helping working groups to integrate their strategic contributions into a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Here is an update on where we are with that right now.

The story so far:

A first overarching strategy was developed in August and September in a movement-wide consultation process facilitated by the SST. Summaries of it were produced and presented to the movement in October. (This may have gone unnoticed by many, as people were pretty busy doing other stuff).

The original plan was to immediately proceed with concretising this very broad strategy, but following the October Rebellion it became clear that there is a need for aligning different perspectives on how we create change and how we define success.

Therefore in late November and early December, the SST facilitated three days of strategy workshops in which representatives from all the main circles were invited to discuss and compare their ‘Theories of Change’ – their understanding of how society works and, based on that understanding, how we will bring about the changes we need.

These workshops proved more successful than hoped; instead of a clash of different tactical approaches, there was agreement that we should combine the work of different working groups into an ‘Ecology of Theories of Change’, where tensions could be held and made productive.

Perhaps an example will help:

If, for example, Media & Messaging are keen to promote the narrative that our corrupt government is responsible for the climate and ecological emergency, and to persuade people that what we need in order to deal with the crisis is a more participatory form of democracy, we can say they are using a ‘message-oriented’ Theory of Change.

And if, in the meantime, the Actions Circle are keen to apply pressure on the government by creating a dilemma action that will present the government with high economic and reputational costs unless it agrees to negotiate with us, we can say they have a ‘pressure-building’ Theory of Change.

Now these two Theories of Change are perfectly compatible – indeed, it could be argued that one cannot function properly without the other.

It is, however, possible that the two theories could come into conflict with each other. If, for example, Actions Circle were to produce actions in which rebels are perceived as acting in a very undemocratic way. We would then appear to be contradicting our own messaging. Or if M&M was to send out the message that rebels will probably call off their actions before they really bite, they would be undermining the work of Actions.

But this kind of clash can easily be avoided if we have close strategic coordination between working groups. This was the kind of understanding the working groups reached at the December workshops – that different Theories of Change used by different working groups should be coordinated, and in this way potentiate each other.

However, the workshops did not result in any concrete strategy proposals, nor did they produce any guidelines that were more than a general aspiration. Participants also felt an urgent need for greater inclusivity and wider participation.

What happens now:

The SST is now following a two-track process that will address the above shortcomings:

1. The first line of development is to make strategy more concrete.

This means producing an action strategy and timeline for 2020, including dates and goals for the next Rebellion, so that rebels can start planning and taking time off. This was done by Actions Circle, and the timeline was published on 1st January 2020.

The ‘Action Strategy 2020’ will then be taken to a ‘Strategic Directions’ workshop (7th and 8th January 2020) at which representatives of national working groups will produce cross-circle strategic directions within the framework provided by Actions. In this way, the Rebellion will enjoy the full thrust of a well-coordinated movement behind each action.

The results of this workshop will then be sent out for consultation across the whole of the UK movement. This consultation will take the form of a detailed online survey, sent out on the 10th and evaluated by the 15th of January 2020.

Meanwhile, our new wave of DNA trainings will be updated to include the latest strategic thinking and guidelines. DNA workshops for the ‘training of trainers’ are set to start at the beginning of January.

1. The second line of development is focused on movement-wide participation and will work to foster a widely shared understanding:

• of how different Theories of Change can and need to complement each other,

• of how we understand and practice Nonviolence,

• of what we have learned from the October Rebellion and how to apply that.

We will be working with the new Feedback & Learning Culture Circle to analyse the debrief received after the October Rebellion and also working on the movement-wide analysis of critiques of XR. We will also be processing inputs from XR Movement of Movements.

A series of consultations and workshops with national and regional teams and members of local groups will help to create shared understanding and coordinate strategic integration across the movement. The result will be an updated version of the strategy document, produced in February 2020. The process will include Global South representation and a language review for diversity, accessibility and decolonisation.

The updated strategy document will be reviewed and approved by an online panel in February 2020 and submitted for scrutiny by a Rebels’ Assembly in February/March 2020, before being sent to Anchor Circle in March.

In order to secure implementation of the plan, the SST intends to set up a committed core team with fixed office hours. We will also facilitate recurrent forums for strategy review, and consult regularly with key strategy contributors.

What can your working group do to participate in the process?

Right Now

The ‘Strategic Directions’ Workshop is taking place on 7th and 8th January 2020. We would like to invite a maximum of 2 representatives from each of the following circles, which will be significantly impacted by and/or need alignment with the Action Strategy 2020:

Actions, Communities, Feedback & Learning Culture, Guardianship & Visioning, Media & Messaging, Political, Regenerative Cultures, Relationships, XR Youth, Internationalist Solidarity Network, Self-Organising System

Each of the above-named groups is invited to consult internally, and if appropriate with its subgroups, to find suitable representative(s) who are available to attend the January workshop. We will try to ensure a gender balance and representation of under-represented groups.

To obtain your calendar invitation, names and contact details of representatives should be sent to SST’s external coordinator, Abigail Cheverst.

From January

Strategy workshops with representatives from national and regional teams will be held in January and February 2020. Please start considering who would like to attend from your national or regional team. If you are interested in taking part, please contact Abigail Cheverst.

At the same time, an online strategy panel will be set up using a modified sortition process. The panel will contain representation from across the movement and will feed directly into the strategy process. In order to submit your name to be put into the sortition process for the panel please contact Luke Flegg.

We will also be working with the Embedding Nonviolence team to explore definitions of nonviolence across the movement. If you would like to be involved in this process, please contact Paolo.

Lastly, People’s Assemblies will be held to allow local and regional groups to input into the Theory of Change development process. Please contact Abigail Cheverst if your group would like to participate.

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